Healthy Steps

Yesterday I walked to a protected spring - about 500 meters down a bit of hill and back up a bit of hill. I did this with my camera bag slung over my shoulder and people watching my every step to make sure that I did not slip on the on the packed soil and clay. I was surrounded by small farm plots that men and women were working in - with the perfect clouds and blue sky above, it was a scene worthy of a movie. 

When I arrived at the protected spring, I talked with a few women and men who were gathered there. They said that about 100 families from the village of Kabuga used this spring. The farthest people lived 2 kilometers away, but most lived closer - all of them uphill and most of them not visible from where we stood. I could not help but think - 2 kilometers uphill carrying 20 litres of water and maybe a baby on your back. I was out of breath with the bits of hill I had climbed. Admittedly, I am out of shape after having sat in vehicles and meetings for over 6 weeks. But, I know what it is like to carry a jerry can full of water and I know what it is like to walk steep hills and have no desire to combine the two in my daily life. And so my mind immediately wondered what more could be done or if a different water solution should have been chosen.

Our conversation continued, and I found the men and women smiling, filled with the joy of clean water and hygiene in their homes. Before the spring was protected, they would wait for water to fill the mud hole where the spring came out. If someone else had just collected water, they had to wait for the silt to settle. This water flows freely and is devoid of mud and silt. This means the water is cleaner and takes less time to collect giving women and children more time for other activities. They were taught hygiene - they boil drinking water and clean themselves and their children. They no longer spend lots of time and money at the medical clinic - both of which they put to good use elsewhere. These people are thrilled with their protected spring. 

I cannot deny these changes in the people of Kabuga - they are real and they are powerful. I still hope that someday they will not have to walk for water, but this protected spring and the hygiene changes they have chosen to make in their homes are incredibly healthy steps. Yesterday was a beautiful reminder that often it is not the perfect solution that is needed, but instead, simply a step.